The Prime Minister’s Parliamentary Secretary has this afternoon declared the GP Tax has been dropped, highlighting the complete chaos within the Abbott Government over its health policy.
Alan Tudge: We’ve dropped the Medicare co-payments and we’re starting again from scratch.
ABC 774 Fight Club, 11 February 2015
Alan Tudge’s claim directly contradicts Treasurer Joe Hockey, who just last night asserted that the Government would not be abandoning its $5 GP Tax, due to come into effect from July 1.
It also contradicts new Health Minister Sussan Ley who, despite promising to listen to doctors, has insisted any compromise must still include a co-payment.
The declaration by the Prime Minister’s Parliamentary Secretary is a repeat of the chaos that occurred in December when Mr Abbott’s office falsely briefed journalists that the GP Tax had been dropped.
A few days later the government reworked the GP Tax, and attempted to sneak it in via the backdoor over the Christmas break, before being shamed into yet another backflip, and a third reworking of its blatant broken promise.
The comments by the Prime Minister’s own Parliamentary Secretary highlight the complete chaos that is Coalition health policy, involving around $2 billion of proposed cuts to Medicare.